April 10, 2023
You may be chuckling to yourself why I am posting about Resurrection Sunday after Resurrection Sunday. Well, friends, I guess I have not made it to “super-organized-business-woman-mom-blogger” status yet. I’m just a normal, often frazzled mama living one day at a time and often one moment at a time.
Today’s post will be from my heart, and I invite you to sit at my kitchen table with me. May I pour you a cup of coffee? Or are you a tea drinker? Whatever your preference, let’s take a little time together to ponder the true reason for this time of year. Join me for a little Bible time at my kitchen table.
My children and I have morning Bible time during and right after breakfast, and this time of the day is one of my absolute favorite moments. The chaos is minimal, and we are able to focus our minds on God and His Word before the daily grind begins.
One reason I love teaching God’s Word to my children is that it brings the Bible scenes from my childhood afresh and anew to my mind. My children ask questions that I have never pondered or in such a way that I am forced to consider the accounts in a different way.
Something that I am burdened about is helping my kids to see the big picture of scripture. All of scripture ties together and ultimately points to Jesus, the Lamb of God. It is so easy to fall into the trap of segmenting Bible accounts into isolated events instead of realizing that all of scripture flows together to tell God’s story. Everything that God does has purpose and is to teach us something valuable.
There is no way in this 1,000+ word blog post that I can cover the depth and full meaning of the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. So today, I am simply going to share a few thoughts that we have been thinking about in our morning Bible time. None of these thoughts are extremely profound, yet I hope your heart will be blessed.
The historic and prophetic significance of the Last Supper has captured my children’s and my attention. Between our Bible lessons at home and recently enjoying The Lord’s Supper (some call this special time communion) at our church, our hearts and minds have been fascinated by the meaning of the last meal that Jesus Christ ate before His death, often referred to as The Last Supper.
To truly understand the account of the Last Supper, we must actually go back to the Old Testament to understand the meaning of this simple yet important meal. The Lord Jesus’ last supper hearkened back to the very first Passover meal shared by the Jewish people, and Christ celebrated this meal in obedience to God’s commands and also as a fulfillment of future prophecy—His death on the cross.
What was the first Passover supper?
God gave specific commands for celebrating the first Passover as recorded in Exodus 12. Each family was to take a spotless lamb, kill it, and then roast it in fire. The blood of the lamb was brushed onto the doorposts, a future symbol of the Lamb of God’s blood on the cross. The family then ate the roast lamb with unleavened bread (no yeast in it) and bitter herbs while standing up (they were about to leave Egypt). This unusual and symbolic meal was to be celebrated each year to help the Jewish people remember what God did for them in bringing them out of Egypt.
What was Jesus’ Last Supper symbolizing?
With the disciples Jesus celebrated the Passover feast, His last meal before His death, in obedience to God’s commands. God commanded the Jewish people in Exodus 12:14 that the Passover feast “shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever.”
In Jesus’ final hours before His death, He faithfully obeyed God by breaking the symbolic bread with His disciples.
Mark 14:22 Jesus took bread, and blessed, and brake it, and gave to them, and said, Take, eat: this is my body.
The breaking of bread pictured the soon breaking of Christ’s body on the cross. After breaking bread, Jesus then gave the cup to His disciples.
Mark 14:23-24 And he took the cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them: and they all drank of it. And he said unto them, This is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many.
Jesus then passed a cup to His disciples with “the fruit of the vine” foretelling His own blood which would soon be poured out on the cross.
How astounding that Jesus, the Lamb of God and the One symbolized by the sacrificed lambs of the Old Testament, should serve the Last Supper to His disciples! All the sacrificed Passover lambs of the Old Testament pointed to the Lamb of God Who would give His life a ransom for many. The Lamb Himself served the Passover meal to His disciples calling to remembrance all the Passovers meals previous and pointing ahead to His imminent death on the cross. What an act of servant leadership Jesus demonstrated! In one simple meal, Jesus fulfilled prophecy and also demonstrated His self-sacrifice.
With a pastel splash of cutesy bunnies and eggs, the world seeks to obscure the true meaning of the Resurrection season. The cruel cross-death of Jesus Christ was nothing like the gentle spring seasons we see depicted as “Easter”, and His blood is offensive to many. Yet it was the blood of the Lamb that paid for the sins of the entire world. The blood of the Lamb allows God to “pass over” us and see our sins no more.
Though it seems paradoxical that blood could wash anything, the blood of the Lamb of God is what can wash away our sins. The simple hymn “Nothing But the Blood” asks, “What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.”
Dear reader, are you under the blood of the Lamb? Have you come to Jesus for soul-cleansing? He alone can give you eternal life and the peace and security that we all so desperately crave.
My young children love to quote this simple Bible verse which encapsulates the whole gospel story:
John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him, should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Like a young child, if you come in simple faith believing that Jesus paid for your sins, you can have eternal life! My hope and prayer is that anyone reading this blog post will be drawn to the Lord Jesus this Resurrection season.
-Ashley
Beautiful!! I am using some of your ideas for my Passover meal!! Beautiful music too!!